Introduction

When in his Palladis Tanda of 1598 (sig. Oo 3^v) Francis Meres enumerated those English playwrights whom he held to be “our best for tragedy” and “our best for comedy,” he produced the following list for the latter category: “Edward Earl of Oxford, Dr. Gager of Oxford, Master Rowley…Master Edwards, one of her Majesty’s chapel; eloquent and witty John Lily; Lodge, Gascoigne, Greene, Shake-speare, Thomas Nash, Thomas Heywood, Anthony Munday, our best plotter, Chapman, Porter, Wilson, Hathway, and Henry Chettle.”